The first tour is set to take place Feb. 12 to 18, when major celebrations are planned for the birthday of the country's late leader Kim Jong Il, one of North Korea's biggest holidays.

February 16, known as the "Day of the Shining Star" in North Korea, commemorates the birthday of Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011. The day is celebrated with large-scale public gatherings, military parades, and national festivities across the country.

North Korea announced it will reopen the country to tourism after nearly five years, following the COVID-19 pandemic that began in 2020.

A tour operator said it had opened bookings for trips to a North Korean border city to celebrate former leader Kim Jong Il's birthday, offering foreign tourists the first chance to visit since the pandemic.

North Korea has reopened its touristic border city of Rason near China after it was closed in 2020 at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a tour operator. "There has been news that Rason, located in the northeast of North Korea, has officially opened for tourism," said Koryo Tourism Agency in a notice to its customers on Monday.

Tour operators said in January that the North would reopen Rason, a city on the border with China, to foreign tourists, five years after Pyongyang sealed its frontiers in response to Covid-19

Koryo Tours opens bookings for North Korean border city trips to celebrate Kim Jong Il's birthday post-pandemic.

Beijing-based travel agency, Koryo Tours, said the February tour in Rason would be "the first trip back to North Korea since the borders closed in January 2020"